[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for La Máquina.]

The Big Picture

In the Hulu series ‘La Máquina’, boxer Esteban struggles to revive his career with manager Andy’s help amidst dangerous threats.
Bernal and Diego Luna reflect on the journey of turning La Máquina into a Spanish-language TV series for Hulu.
Esteban, played by Gael García Bernal, faces personal demons while protecting his family, including his ex-wife, played by Eiza González.

The six-episode Spanish-language Hulu drama series La Máquina follows Esteban Osuna (Gael García Bernal), a boxer on the downswing of his career whose manager and Botox addicted best friend, Andy Lujan (Diego Luna), is trying to make a star again. But Andy’s own dealings with the criminal underworld pull Esteban and his ex-wife Irasema (Eiza González) into a dark side of boxing that neither wants to be involved in. Even though Esteban knows the boxing rematch has potentially dangerous consequences, the aging Mexican fighter wants to go ahead with the fight at a time when accumulated neurological trauma is making it harder for him to determine what’s real.

During this interview with Collider, longtime friends and collaborators Bernal and Luna discussed the long journey La Máquina took to becoming a TV series, wanting to tell a story about what it’s like to be faced with the very real possibility of having to leave a career that you love before you feel it’s time to do so, why boxing can be such a great analogy for life, figuring out Andy’s look, and wanting to find a way to shorten the development process for next time.

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna Feel That ‘La Máquina’ Represents Who They Are Today

Collider: It took more than a decade to turn this idea into a TV series, and somehow it’s the first Spanish-language original series at Hulu. Hopefully, it won’t be the last. What does it mean to you guys to be able to bring audiences that first Spanish-language series about Mexico that’s shot in Mexico?

DIEGO LUNA: It’s pretty incredible. It means a lot.

GAEL GARCIA BERNAL: Especially because we like it a lot.

LUNA: We’ve been working for a long time on this project. For us, it’s always been a project in Spanish. It was more about who was gonna partner with us to do it. First, Fox Searchlight came in, and we thank them so much for this collaboration and this opportunity to work with partners that understood exactly what we wanted to do and help us propel it to what it is today. And then, Hulu got involved, and they decided to make it. Yes, it’s the first time they’ve done something in Spanish. Hopefully, it’s not the last. In fact, I assure you, it won’t be the last. The beautiful thing about this great opportunity is that we got away with what we wanted, at the very beginning, which was to do something different with a different approach that would represent who we are today, as friends, as artists, and as fans of boxing. We are telling the story we wanted to tell and that interests us, which is about what happens at the end of a career like this. How do you learn to let go? Is it possible, even, to actually be at the peak of your career and let go without losing the appetite for what’s to come. It’s a beautiful reflection. We are there, in a way. We are not there, in the sense that our careers are not like boxers, but we are there because we are older. How do we portray the characters that are now available for us and tell the stories that we can now tell?

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Gael, boxing is a world where you have a shelf-life because you can’t physically keep going on and doing it. With acting, you don’t have to stop because of age or physical issues. How did this character make you reflect on that as well?

BERNAL: A lot. Boxing is such a wonderful sport for any analogy. There are many sports that are great for many analogies of life, but there’s something about boxing, in particular, that’s so primal and so elemental. You open yourself to success by punching out things and not getting punched, and boxers think that life is like that. Life is completely amorphous. It doesn’t obey. There isn’t a set standard line where you should tread upon. It’s such a different experience, and that is wonderful to ponder. There is an opportunity there to say something that we’ve never seen in a boxing film. It’s about saying goodbye to success, but also saying goodbye to something that you’re having fun doing and that you finally know how to do properly. It’s similar for doctors. When they’re 65, they say, “Now I know what to do. This is the age of retirement? But this is my prime. I’m in my best moment with so much experience.” For acting, I can count many examples of great actors that, with age, became even better and more successful. It made us reflect a lot on that, embracing that in the most loving and joyful way. Nowadays, we live in a world where we can embrace aging in a really funky, edgy, and transgressive way. It’s crazy that now older people are being transgressive. The rules have changed. Normally, it’s the young people.

Related Before ‘La Máquina,’ Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal Broke Out in This Oscar-Nominated Movie The actors also have one of the longest-standing friendships in Hollywood.

I love that you can fully embrace the beard.

BERNAL: Exactly! Thank you so much.

LUNA: All this was just to say the beard is okay.

Diego Luna Says There Was a Long Process for Getting the Look of His ‘La Máquina’ Character Right
Image via Hulu

Diego, how was it to see yourself as this character? Was there a process for finding out what you wanted him to look like? You want it to read on camera, but you don’t want it to be a caricature, so how did you fine tune that?

LUNA: We tried many things, and we gave ourselves the time to get to what we shot. It was a collaboration with a team of prosthetics, makeup, and costumes. All the elements matter. The production design and the props and everything around tell the story of who this man is. We had to find the right level. There are so many references in real life where we were like, “Oh, shit, we cannot go that far.” A few minutes researching on Instagram, and we knew we had to take it easy. We could not get lost behind the mask. The idea is that the character has to come out. The mask can’t be something that gets in between. It was very simple to realize when we got to the right level. We were doing these tests and I came out, and it was the reaction of everyone around that was like, “Okay, we got it.” Gael was there and he was like, “Holy crap.” But he started interacting with me. He didn’t feel like, “Oh, shit, I cannot even get close.” He communicated with me in a way that was like, “Okay, this guy feels real.” It was fun to put it on. It took me time to get used to, but the moment I was used to it, I was just flying. It was complete freedom. It was a character that I enjoyed portraying, the whole time. The energy of this man with no filter, who was so ridiculous, but without even noticing, it was fun. There was a lot of laughter. I stayed in character the whole day because I was enjoying it.

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You guys have known each other for a long time, but you don’t actually get to work together on camera all that often.

LUNA: That’s why we are great friends. We have never been forced to work together. Every time we do it, it is because we want to and we look for it.

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna Plan To Continue Working and Collaborating Together
Image via Hulu

Would you want to find a way to do more episodes of La Máquina, or do you have other ideas for projects that you hope to get going soon?

BERNAL: We hope so. We hope it happens sooner rather than later. Television takes a while to get together, and film also. We’ve been working together, not on screen, but outside. We have a production company. We have a film festival together. We’re always creating. We’ll be like, “Let’s do this. Let’s build this. Let’s try to make this happen.” That is wonderful. That is also working together, in another kind of way. But definitely, we hope that we get the chance to do something soon again, on screen. That would be fantastic.

LUNA: This whole process of having an idea and finding the way to do it needs to become shorter. Otherwise, next time, we’ll be talking about this very old friendship that’s too old.

La Máquina Release Date October 8, 2024 Cast Gael García Bernal , Diego Luna , Eiza Gonzalez , Lucía Méndez , Raúl Briones , Christopher Evangelou , Juan Carlos Huguenin , Andrés Delgado , Luis Gnecco , Jorge Perugorría , Karina Gidi , Sandra Quiróz , David Diamante , Dariam Coco Seasons 1 Expand

La Máquina is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the trailer:

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